It Was The Best of Times, It Was The Worst of Times
2022 was a helluva year
Yes, 2022 was a helluva year for me. It was filled with joy and sadness. Between those two, there was a lot of living done, and I did it as best as possible. It was a year of self-discovery and a lot of writing, more so than I ever imagined.
It started a bit early last year in November with the sudden death of my father. He kicked off a die-off on his side of the family with two of his siblings following him into death and his brother-in-law throughout 2022. Where there were nine, only two remain from my father’s family.
Despite all this sadness and grief, there were some bright spots this year. One bright spot was traveling back to the southwest, only this time with my family in tow. We had a wonderful time visiting many National Parks and roaming through canyons and mountains. We even soaked in Colorado hot springs, which made my partner happy.
I managed to read a few books this year, rereading Notes from Underground by Fyodor Dostoevsky. I read that book when I was 23 years old on a plane ride to and from Albuquerque. I thought the main character was such a badass back then. Now, with older eyes, I find the book to be complex and sublime all at once. It makes me want to read some older books in my library collection again.
Some more books I read this year include:
- The Portable Nietzsche, translated by Walter Kaufmann (still reading)
- Desert Cabal: A New Season in The Wilderness, by Amy Irvine
- Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place, by Terry Tempest Williams.
- The Secret Life of a Sex Worker, by Demeter Delune
- The Solace of Open Spaces, by Gretel Erlich
I started reading more philosophical texts and the Portable Nietzsche came recommended. I’m about 10% of the way through the book and make a lot of notes in the margin. I’m studying it more than reading it if that makes sense, but I’ve gotten so much out of it; I’m savoring every detail.
I was recommended Desert Cabal when I was in Moab this year. I visited the local independent bookshop downtown (note: we need more indie bookshops) and the proprietor recommended Amy Irvine. That book led me to read more “feminist voices in the wilderness” books and I haven’t regretted it since.
The Refuge book is such a tender book that weaves visits to the bird refuge of the Great Salt Lake together with the author’s struggle with her dying mother. As a bird lover myself, I loved how she weaved together the nest birds with her connection with the women in her family; from grandmother to mother to daughter.
The Secret Life of Sex Worker, by my friend Demeter Delune, was an unexpected gem. It gave me a deeper appreciation of the world of sex work and those that work/live in it. I recommend this book if you want to peek behind the curtain and truly understand that world.
Last, but not least on the book front is Gretel’s book, The Solace of Open Spaces. It was the best new book I read all year and I loved how she wrote about ranching and Wyoming. She deals with the death of her partner and finds love again. It’s such a beautiful book and I recommend borrowing a copy from your library.
I’m currently reading and studying:
- Menopausing, by Davina Mcall and Dr. Naomi Potter
- Hands On Simulation Modeling with Python, by Giuseppe Ciaburro, PhD
My goal for next year is to read more. Find things I like to read and just spend an hour in bed reading.
On a physical note, I ended up losing 20 lbs of weight. This made me incredibly happy because I had a scary health incident that I’m working on correcting. I started working out more in the basement and doing kettlebells and resistance training. It’s helped a lot but I still have another 20 lbs to go to my ideal weight. Overall, I’m down 30 lbs from my peak weight and I feel like I’m #winning.
On a confusing note, I quit my Dojo two months ago. I just got tired and hit a wall. This doesn’t mean my martial arts studies are over, it means I need to practice more at home and find another complementary art to practice.
What’s in store for 2023? I’m not sure yet, I’m not a resolution-making guy. I have ideas and goals that occupy my mind space with loose targets.
The big goal is to continue to build my readership on Medium and Substack. I surpassed my goals for Medium 3 months ahead of schedule and I continue to grow. I’ll fall short of my stretch goal of 1,000 readers by Dec 31, 2022, but I’m happy that I got to where I am 3 months ahead of schedule. I had explosive growth from August through November and it feels good that my work is resonating with so many great people.
Another goal is to rebuild my old neuralmarkettrends.com web property. I want to figure out how to maximize its use now that RapidMiner has been bought out and I work in the data science and startup field. The online content creation world has moved to places like medium and old blogs like mine aren’t “hip” anymore. Still, it has great backlinks and a decent domain ranking. It’s too valuable NOT to do something with.
Speaking of value, I’m waiting for the final dividend and capital gains distributions on my stock holdings for the year. Once I get that I can see if I surpassed my passive investing goals for 2022. I was on target as of mid-year but Jerome Powell and the Federal Reserve raised interest rates and my portfolio suffered.
I also have some other personal goals like organizing my garage and camping equipment this year. It might sound a bit boring but I’ve been on a “preparation” kick ever since I got back from the desert.
Of course, I would be remiss not to write about my partner and awesome kids. They remain the brightest light of my life and they are the reason why I live an awesome life.
Last, but not least, I wanted to give a big thank you to all my new Medium writer friends, readers, and followers! You brought me great joy this year with all your chats, highlights, comments, and claps. I’m wishing you a Happy New Year and the best 2023. I love you all, let’s make next year a good one.
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